Okureite miru zo kanashiki hakanasa o ukimi no ato to nani tanomiken

English Translation

Left behind to live,
how sad it is to see it—
that fleeting life,
why did I trust it to be
the heir of my sorrowful self?

Meaning

Left behind, how sad it is to look upon this grave—why did I trust so fleeting a life to carry on after my own sorrowful self?

Commentary

Book Eight Lament Poems 840

Headnote: "Composed on going to the grave of Middle Captain of the Left Michimune."
This is the second poem of the sequence that draws impermanence close to one's own self. It says that it is sad to be left behind to see the grave, and asks why he trusted so fleeting a life to succeed his sorrowful self. According to the headnote, it was composed on going to the grave of Middle Captain of the Left Michimune.
The son of Palace Minister Minamoto no Masamichi, the author rose to Palace Minister. He wielded power as a close retainer of Retired Emperor Go-Toba and also served as a Fellow of the Bureau of Poetry. "Middle Captain of the Left Michimune" is the author's son Minamoto no Michimune, who became Middle Captain of the Left Inner Palace Guards but died before his father.
The scene is the time after Michimune's death, set at Michimune's grave.
The direct occasion is visiting the grave of his son Michimune.

The first line, "okureite," means "left behind, still here." It speaks of the position of a parent who has lost a child.
In the second line, "miru zo kanashiki," "zo" is an emphatic binding particle, completed by the attributive "kanashiki." It speaks of the sorrow of looking upon the grave. The poem pauses after the second line.
The third line, "hakanasa o," means "though it was so fleeting." It refers to the fleetingness of Michimune's life.
In the fourth line, "ukimi no ato to," "ukimi" is his own self, full of hardship. "Ato" means the one who carries on after one's death.
In the last line, "nani tanomiken," "nani" means "why." "Ken" expresses conjecture about a past cause, closing as "why did I rely on him?" It is the lament of a parent outlived by the child who was to carry on after him. Following the preceding poem, 839, which asked how long one can hear of others' deaths as no concern of one's own, here death appears in the person of his own child. It echoes 813 of this book, which lamented having trusted the world after losing a young child, in the grief of a parent who placed his hopes in a child.

Author

Minamoto no Michichika

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other